About the Milice
Milice de Sainte Famille (Holy Family
Militia) is an interpretive unit for the historic sites in the French Colonial
District in Southern Illinois; a support group for the Old Courthouse in
Cahokia, Fort de Chartres and other state owned French sites with the purpose of
promoting and educating the public about local French heritage by focusing on
the militia and civilian lifestyles of the French colonial period.
O.K. enough with the official purpose of this group. The original Cahokia militia was formed in 1724 under orders of the Intendant of New Orleans. Our group came into existence in 1985. We try to demonstrate how the people of 18th century Cahokia might have lived.
This mid-1700 time period was very important to
what would soon become the United States of America. The taxes Great Britain
levied to pay for the French and Indian War (1754-1763) was one of the
underlying causes of the American Revolution.
We operate out of the Old
Courthouse State Historic Site in Cahokia. The village of Cahokia developed around a mission founded by French Catholic missionaries in 1699. This site is
an original French home dating from about 1732. The home was purchased by Arthur St. Clair to be used as the first courthouse in St. Clair County in 1790.
We also volunteer at [an error occurred while processing this directive]